Toothbrush with identification means



Nov. 29, 1949 F. G. EUBANKS 2,489,707

TOOTHBRUSH WITH IDENTIFICATION MEANS Filed Sept. 27, 1946' F OYD G. EusANKs,

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Patented Nov. 29, 1949 UNITED STATES .PATENT OFFICE TOOTHBRUSII WITH IDENTIFICATION MEANS Floyd G. Enbanks, Pasadena, Calif. Application September 27, 1946, Serial No. 699,699

4 Claims (Cl. 206-47) This invention relates to the provision of suitable ownership identification, and the provision of a record of the date of initial use, of tooth brushes, and particularly to provisions for marking of such character that, upon purchase of the tooth brush, the correct identification and record may be immediately applied by the purchaser.

It is an important object of my invention to enable the owner of a new tooth brush to permanently mark the brush with his own name or identifying mark so that others will not subsequently fail to avoid its use.

It is readily appreciated that any one may apply a label to a tooth brush handle and thereby fix its identity. However, its omission is a common failing, probably because the labeling means are not conveniently at hand at the time of the first use of the brush. It is, accordingly, another object of this invention to provide an article of manufacture and sale which embodies the tooth brush and the identification means in one package so that when the brush is first used by the user he will be reminded of the need for identifying the brush and atlthe same time be possessed of the means of making an identification marker for the brush personal to himself.

I recognize, of course, that the brush could be initially manufactured with a means of identification. For example, a line of tooth brushes might be manufactured carrying the individual family nouns, as mother, father, sister, brother, etc. However, such a method of providing for ownership identification would require, inter alia, that merchants carry a comparatively large stock of tooth brushes, with the result that the turnover in brushes would be inversely proportional to the number of such family names used in the identified line. It is, accordingly, an important object of my invention to provide an article of manufacture which is identical for all such articles with respect to their means of identification, yet which incorporates the means of an individuals identification without the intervention of any outside facilities, such as labels, pencils, and the like. Moreover, it is an important feature of my invention that when the owner puts the new tooth brush into use, he is enabled to place a marker on the brush bearing the date of its initial use. By so doing, the owner has a record of the period of time over which the brush has been in use and can correctly judge of the time for its replacement.

It is another object of this invention to provide a personally identifiable tooth brush, the identification of which is provided by a windowed receptacle, which is substantially sealed to prevent the passage thereinto of foreign matter such as tooth paste and water, and an identifying marker or card housed in the receptacle presenting the marking for viewing through the window. In this way the marker remains clear and distinctly understandable throughout the life of the tooth brush. This object is attained in a practical and economical way by choosing the brush handle to be of a transparent material and forming the receptacle as a part of the transparent material of the handle. By so doing, the shape of the handle as heretofore employed is unchanged and the handle remains free of undesirable projections and devices such as externally applied markers which would not only be awkward but would also be difficult to keep clean. It is, accordingly, another object of my invention to provide an identifiable tooth brush, the identification of which is provided inside the handle.

Inasmuch as my new tooth brush identification arrangement does provide a receptacle for an identification card such that the card is inclosed in the receptacle by the owner-user, a closure is also provided. By making the receptacle of a cross-section which is relatively thin in height and relatively wide in width with the length of the receptacle extending along the axis of the handle, the identification card is inserted flat and a resilient flat plug, cut from a sheet of suitable material, forms the closure. It is, accordingly, one of the objects of my inventionto provide a tooth brush handle forming a marker receptacle of thin rectangular cross section such that a flat plug may be used to close the receptacle, the plug being constructed and arranged to wedge into the receptacle to retain itself therein.

Another object of this invention is to provide a tooth brush having an elongated receptacle formed in the handle portion and with a closure for closing and sealing the receptacle which may be hung over a suitable hook. This is accomplished by providing holes in both the handle portion of the tooth brush and the closure which holes are designed to register with each other.

Another object of my invention is to provide a frangible closure for the elongated receptacle having a plug portion and stop portions arranged to stop the insertion of the closure by engagement with the handle end of the brush, said closure being provided with aweakness in the bond between the plug portion and the stop portiorlr whereby the stop portions can be easily broken rbendingagainsttherimofthereceptaclepor.

tion at the handle end.

My invention has other objects, advantages. and features, some of which, with the foregoing, will be set forth at length in the following description where I shall outline one form of my invention, which I have selected for illustration in the drawings accompany n and forming a part of the present specification.

In the drawings.

Fig. 1 is a side elevationalview of a tooth brush embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a back view of the brush as seen from the bottom side of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary plan and sectional view taken on the line 3-4 of Fig. 1 before the stop portions of the closure member are broken off:

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary section taken on the line H of Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is an end elevation taken as indicated by the-arrow I on Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is aperspective view of the closure member;

Fig. 7 is a section through a carton containing a tooth brush with aclosure member and a sheet of separable identification cards, and

Fig. 8 is a plan view of a sheet of separable cards. i

Referring now to the several figures of the drawing, a tooth brush I0 includes a frame l2.

The frame I2 is formed of transparent material and provides a head portion l4 and a handle portion II. The head portion H has secured therein brush tufting l8. As described to this point the tooth brush is of a well known and understood character.

The handle it is preferably provided with a rounded end 20, a hole 2| near said rounded end. flat parallel front and back exterior surfaces 22 and 24, and parallel side edges 26 and 23. A receptacle 3!] is formed in the handle, opening through the rounded end 20. The receptacle 30 is rectangular in cross section and has fiat parallel interior top and bottom wall surfaces 32 and 34. Interior surfaces 32 and 34 are, respectively,

parallel to the surfaces 22 and 24. The receptacle 30 is further provided with parallel interior sidewall surfaces 36 and N which are parallel with side edges 26 and 28. The rectangular cross section of the receptacle 30 is uniform throughout the length of the receptacle.

' Referring now to Figure 8, a sheet of cardboard 40 is provided. This cardboard sheet is printed and divided by lines of weakness 42 to provide width and thickness.

The thickness of cardboard sheet so is slightly less than half the distance between the interior wall surfaces 32 and 34 of the receptacle 30. The widths of the cards are uniform and slightly less than the distance between the edge walls 36 and 32 of receptacle 30. The lengths .of the cards are uniform and they are shorter than the length of the receptacle 30 for a reason to appear.

The lines of weakness 42 may be provided by suitable perforations. The cards 44 have imprinted thereon the names of members of a family. The cards 46 have imprinted thereon the times of the day for use of a brush. The cards 48 have imprinted thereon the months, and the cards 50 are left blank for the writing thereon of any desired identifying mark.

Any two cards, such as a card 44 bearing the word Mother and a card 48 bearing the month a series of cards 44, 46, 43, and 50, of equal length,

abbreviation Mar. can be severed from the sheetllplacedbacktobackandinsertedinto the receptacle It with the result that the owner's identification and date of placing in use are seen through the handle.

A closure I2 is provided. The closure. I2 is cut from frangible sheet material, such as celluloid or other plastic material. The thickness of the sheet material is such as to fit tightly between the interior wall surfaces 32 and 34 of the receptacle. The closure I2 is cut to provide a plug portion I4 having parallel side edges II and II spaced to fit tightly between the walls 36 and 28 of receptacle 32.

The closure I2 is cut so as to provide expansive resilient arms II which have wedging edge surfaces I2 diverging from the edges II and II. The arms II are separated by a slit 34. A hole II is punched in the closure member between the wedging surfaces to provide the required degree of flexibility and for alignment with the hole 2| in the tooth brush as set forth hereinafter.

The closure I2 is further cut so as to provide on the arms II projecting gage stops 81. The member I4 is weakened between stops 6'! and arms 60 as by providing notches 62 and/or score lines II across the portions of the material joining the arms II and the stops 61. Obviously, instead of making the gage stops 8! wider than the distance between the wedging edge surfaces 62,the gage steps may be formed by making that portion of thicker material.

When the cards 44 and 48 have been inserted in the receptacle 3., the closure end 54 is inserted thereafter and pushed in until the stops 6! engage the rounded end 20 of the brush handle. The wedging edges I2 grip the walls 36 and 38 to prevent the closure from coming out.

The stops I! are now bent against the rim of the receptacle so as to be broken off. When the closure stops I! are broken off, the rounded end of the handle appears as in Figures 1 and 2.

The hole 2| in the handle registers with the hole 66 in the closure member 52 when the closure is in place. Thus the brush may be hung over a suitable hook. It will be noted that the plug portion I4 of the closure is between the holes 2| and the closed-in space of the receptacle 30, this closed-in space being occupied by the cards 44 and 43, and that the closed-in space is thereby substantially sealed to prevent the passage thereinto of foreign matter such as tooth paste, water, etc.

The article of manufacture and sale is illustrated in Fig. 7 to comprise a carton 12 having therein contained the brush III with the closure I2 inserted in the receptacle 3B and the card 4I. which has instructions (not shown in detail) for use. Obviously, instead of inserting the closure in the receptacle 20 before packaging, the closure 52 may be packaged as a separate item.

When the brush is to be placed in use, the carton is emptied of its contents which themselves serve as a reminder that they may im mediately be put to use. The portions of card 40 which are unused are discardable.

From the foregoing description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, the uses and advantages of, my invention will be readily understood by those skilled in the various arts in which the invention may be employed. While I have described the principle and operation of my invention, I desire to have it understood that the form shown is merely illustrative and that the invention is not to be limited to the details disclosed herein, but is to be accorded the full scope of the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. In combination: an identifying-handle having an elongated frame formed of transparent material; an identification card receptacle of rectangular cross section formed by an opening through the handle end with its inside walls extending parallel to the outside walls of the handle, said receptacle being formed by the transparent material of the handle, thereby constituting the walls of through which the interior of the receptacle may be viewed; an identifying strip of material having identification writing thereon disposed in the receptacle and arranged with the writing disposed for viewing through the walls of the receptacle from the exterior thereof, said strip of material being shorter in length than the length of the receptacle so that when fully inserteg in the receptacle 9. free space is left in the-receptacle adjacent the open end thereof and a closure for closing the open end of the receptacle, said closure having an inner end of a cross section to fit within and to close the receptacle to hold the identifying strip therein, said closure being formed of frangible material such as a transparent plastic strip, and having two generally parallel arms extending outwardly from the inner portion of said'closure in divergent relation with a slit between the arms, the closure being slightly greater in length than the space left in the re-' ceptacle by the identifying strip so that the closure, when inserted into the open end of the receptacle, protrudes outwardly of the receptacle, the closure further providing stops extending laterally of the closure arms to prevent excessive insertion of the closure into the receptacle, the closure being further provided with means providing weakness in its material so that the protruding portion may be broken off against the rim of the receptacle flush with the end of the handle.

2. An article of manufacture and sale comprising a carton having contained therein: a tooth brush having a. handle of transparent material provided with an elongated receptacle therein, a printed card carrying thereon a series of separable identification markers, any one or two of which are designed to be inserted in the receptacle of the'tooth brush handle to provide identification therefor, and closure means ceptacle. 3 v

3. An identifying handle of'transparent material having a receptacle and a receptacle opening through the handle end, the receptacle being elongated and of uniform rectangular cross section having transparent walls of uniformthickness; and closure-means formed of frangible the receptacle as windows for closing the rep sheet material of uniform thickness for closing the receptacle opening, including a plug portion of rectangular section to fit in and occupy the cross section of the receptacle adjacent the opening, a gripping portion including a pair of arms having two wedging surfaces arranged in extension of two surfaces of the plug portion, and stop portions integral with the arms arranged to stop the insertion of the closure by engagement with the end of the handle.

4. An identifying handle of transparent material having a hole, a receptacle and a receptacle opening through the handle end, the receptacle being elongated and of uniform rectangular cross r section having transparent walls of uniform thickness; and a closure member formed of frangible sheet material of uniform thickness for closing and sealing the receptacle opening, including a plug portion of rectangular section to fit in and occupy the cross section of the receptacle adjacent the opening, a gripping portion including a pair of arms having two wedging sur- .,faces arranged in extension of two surfaces of the plug portion, stop portions integral with the arms arranged to stop the insertion of the closure by engagement with the end of the handle, a hole in said closure member adapted to register with said hole in said handle, and means providing a weakness in the bond between the gripping por tion and the stop portions whereby the stop portions can be broken by bending against the rim of the opening formed at the handle end.

FLOYD G. EUBANKS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 678,203 Searles et al July 9, 1901 889,636 Roberts June 2, 1908 983,211 Creighton Jan. 31, 1911 1155,878 Booth Oct. 5, 1915 1,237,876 Dinsmoor Aug. 21, 1917 1,292,350 Mentzer Jan. 21, 1919 1,651,669 Carpmael Dec. 6, 1927 1,789,628 Hobbs Jan. 20, 1931 1,952,937 Pilato Mar. 27, 1934 1,955,736v Claytor et a1 Apr. 24, 1934 1,999,113 Shapiro Apr. 23, 1935 2,175,481 Padulo Oct. 10, 1939 2,238,299 Wilson Apr. 15, 1941 2,317,123 .Warp Apr. 20, 1943 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Y Date 5,286 Great Britain Mar. 5, i907 

